A street artist since he was 13, Farto is also known as Vhils and began his career painting trains on a railway line near his home in Seixal.

A street artist since he was 13, Farto is also known as Vhils and began his career painting trains on a railway line near his home in Seixal. Farto has traveled all over Europe and even into the US to compose and chip away his portrait series. You can find his faces in Moscow, Italy, London, Portugal and NYC. Some are quite large and take over the entire facade of a building, while others are small and tucked away and others yet are almost imperceptible and like a ghost image play tricks on the eye.

For his scratched portrait series, called “Scratching the Surface”, Farto first paints the wall with his subject using the paint as a guide for the removal process. Then he uses a jackhammer, picks, hammers and his own hands to chip away and peel back the plaster or concrete facade. What remains is a relief of the face and a wonderful contrast between the smooth facade of the building and the ruble behind it.